Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Two

The success of Sonic the Hedgehog propelled Sega to heights the company had never seen before and it was now time to take control of the console game market in 1992. The original Sonic was a smash success and many fans including myself were definitely wanting more. Sega was already hard at work producing a sequel that looked to be even better than the original. At the time I couldn’t really see how you could top the original game but pretty soon Sega would give me my answer in the form of Sonic 2.

Chapter Two: The Sonic Boom

Sonic the Hedgehog was an amazing financial success for Sega and for the first time they had momentum going into 1992. They would have to deliver a final crushing blow to Nintendo and their SNES if they hoped to continue to their success. While this never happened, they did become the market leaders when Sonic 2 was released. Sonic 2 was an even bigger success than the original and to this day it is still the best selling Sonic game to date selling over 6 million copies worldwide. The original game was amazing, but Sonic 2 could only be met with silent awe and admiration. Sonic 2 absolutely demolished the original in every possible way and gave us a new character, Miles “Tails” Prower.

Sonic now has a Robin to his Batman

The best just got better. Everything in Sonic 2 was better. Better music, better graphics, better level design. That nasty spike glitch was mercifully addressed. (You know that one where if you jump on the spikes you keep hitting it until you die with no way to recover…ugh.) Sonic was given a new ability, the Spin Dash which helped immensely. No longer did you have to run backwards and pick up speed just charge in place and plow through the enemies. Although Zones were reduced from 3 to 2 levels per Zone, more Zones were added to increase variety. Dr. Robotnik was back to challenge you in every level but this time his contraptions were more varied and challenging. Special stages were altered from that awful headache inducing rotating pinball machine thing from the original in favor of a much more fun “rollercoaster” style run in which you simply collect enough rings and avoid taking damage from bombs to collect the Chaos Emeralds. Speaking of Chaos Emeralds….

Nabbing all of the Chaos Emeralds didn’t really do much in the original game. It just slightly altered the ending somewhat. Not in Sonic 2. If you were skilled enough to grab them all in Sonic 2, a really nifty reward happened when you were able to grab 50 rings in a stage. Sonic transformed into a super fast yellow form and became Super Sonic. All your hard work paid off. Any level as Super Sonic was a joke as long as you could keep collecting enough rings before the effect diminishes. Needless to say I thought this was the coolest thing ever and felt like I didn’t waste my time trying to collect them all. In fact I played Sonic 2 to the death. Me and my brother would have hours of fun playing this game. If there was any game I mastered in life, this was definitely one of them. Everything led to the game’s epic conclusion with Sonic and Tails flying into space to face Robotnik one last time. But not before he forced you to fight one of his creations, Metal Sonic. I remember as a kid seeing this nice little surprise and thinking, oh crap when it prepared to charge. I miraculously survived the battle only to discover that Robotnik was a far greater challenge. To this day I still say this game has the hardest final boss out of any of the Sonic games and when it was finally said and done my palms were sweaty and I just kicked back and watched the credits. Epic finish to an epic game.

Sadly, the game wasn’t exactly perfect either. A two player mode was added to the game but sadly it was utterly awful with its split screen and slowdown. This felt like a last minute tacked on addition to the game as an excuse to delete some of the unused stages from the game. Actually this game had a lot of things in it that were unused. This game was a very ambitious project and multiple ideas including time travel even were excised. In fact, Sonic 2 was originally being developed for a new game console Sega was working on that used a compact disc format instead of cartridges but much of those ideas were scrapped. So what did happen to a lot of those ideas? Well, they took them and applied them to what in my opinion is the greatest Sonic game of all time.





It’s now 1993. Sega has taken a firm hold over the home console market and just recently unveiled their Sega CD add on the public. This was made to compete with the success of the Neo Geo and Turbo Duo disc based consoles which were a huge success in Japan. They hadn’t really taken off in North America and with the Sega brand a big name in NA, they would practically run unopposed in that market. The decision was a pretty smart one for Sega in theory. They had a leg up on Nintendo and there shouldn’t be any reason the public wouldn’t buy this new technology right? Sega had marketed the Genesis brilliantly. They banked on the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and it paid off in spades. Sonic was bundled with every console and it sold an impressive amount of units and put them on even footing with Nintendo. So now that Sega had this new disc based hardware it was time to send them packing right? A new Sonic game for the CD was in development and released for the console but instead of showing off that game which truly used the power of the hardware they opted instead to advertise stuff like this…



Yeah, Sega stupidly instead chose to focus on grainy FMV games that looked ugly back then and most certainly haven’t aged well today. As a result the Sega CD became the first real major blunder in the companies history as it was forgotten almost a year after it released. It didn’t take long for people like me to realize most of it’s games were shit and instead of doing the intelligent thing and bundling Sonic CD with the console, most bundles came with a horrible FMV game called Sewer Shark. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with the Sega CD and realized it was going to be a failure after a few months. But hey, at least I had Sonic CD.

Oh what a game Sonic CD was. To this day, still the best Sonic game ever. The best parts of Sonic 1 and 2 were meshed to create this one. Tails wouldn’t be around for this one but instead we did get introduced to a new character, Amy Rose and Sonic’s nemesis Metal Sonic would return in his most recognized incarnation and wouldn’t you know it he’d capture Amy for whatever reason and now you have to save her. Robotnik is back to his old tricks of course and this time he’s not after the Chaos Emeralds, but instead the Time Stones which allows a person to travel in time to any moment he wishes. Why on earth this hasn’t been used in future Sonic stories is beyond me. It’s a neat idea and Sega should revisit it. Lord knows they could use some good ideas, but let’s save that rant for future chapters of this blog series shall we?

The debut of Amy Rose. A moment of celebration for some, dismay for others.

While she wasn’t a playable character and this game regressed back to a 1 player game with just Sonic, this game more than made up with that shortcoming. This game could do things that the other Sonic game could only dream of doing with the new disc based technology. I remember putting in the disc and being treated to the opening movie and heard a really cool song and realized this game was going to blow the other two out of the water.



Sonic now had more animations than ever before. In addition to the Speed Dash Sonic now had the ability to run in place and build momentum. A feature to this day still unique to Sonic CD. This made Sonic even faster than he was in Sonic 2. Thanks to CD technology, Sonic now had a voice for the first time ever. Sonic CD has some of the most interesting level designs in the series. Challenging, yet fun this is also the most replayable Sonic game out of the originals thanks to the time feature. Certain gates marked with Past or Future signs would send Sonic into those respective eras if he built up enough speed. Going into the past and destroying Robotniks machines would allow for a good future in Zone 3 which altered the stage and even the stage music. Speaking of the music, this game had a great soundtrack thanks to the CD quality of the music and oddly enough the music for the American version was very different than that of the original. But who cares! While the Japanese music was good, the music of the American version has aged much better overall and was simply outdone. This is one of those rare times where we did something better than the Japanese in my opinion. The music in this game was a bit different than what you would normally hear out of a Sonic game at that time but nowadays it would fit perfectly. It was just a bit ahead of its time. The special stages were in Mode 7 style and offered the first glimpse into what a 3D Sonic game would be like. Everything about Sonic CD was ahead of its time.

As such Sonic CD was the best selling Sega CD game well, ever and was still enjoyed a fair amount of success and is hailed as a cult classic today. Sadly due to Sega’s mismanagement they took what could have been future success with this disc based add on and future Sonic games could have thrived on this format. Sega was clearly out of touch with what the consumers wanted and had to end the Sega CD experiment shortly thereafter and a true Sonic sequel would be relegated to the Genesis again. Well there’s always the old lovable Genesis I guess, right?

Sonic's reaction to Sega's marketing decisions in the mid 90s

Next Time: The Golden Age of Sonic finally comes to a close and Sonic takes a strange hiatus from the gaming world when Sega gives disc based gaming another go.

Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter One

I’ll never forget Christmas of 1991. I was an impressionable 8 year old child opening all of my gifts that I had received. While I had loved them all, one clearly stood out amongst the rest. I had received my first game console that my parents had bought for me. Up until that point I had to share the NES with my older brother, but now I finally had something I could call my own. My parents bought me a Sega Genesis. I was happy. I knew when I saw that shiny black box with silver lettering I had something special. I was gonna find out what Genesis does that Nintendon’t. While the Sega Genesis is not exactly my favorite game console, it’s my most treasured and one I find most nostalgic. One of the major reasons for this is because the system came packaged with one of my personal favorite game franchises of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog. However, over the years this love has waned. It has transformed from love, to apathy to loathing hate. This then, is the reflection. This is my life experience with Sonic the Hedgehog. National Kenographic presents.....

Chapter 1: The Genesis of Fanboyism

Truth be told, I hadn’t always wanted a Sega Genesis. I was perfectly happy in the 80s with the NES era and I didn’t really think videogames could become much greater than Super Mario Bros. 3. I played that game to the death. I had seen in various gaming publications of a new gaming console, called the Sega Genesis. They ran various ad campaigns on TV and magazines crowing about how great it was and how NES was a joke in comparison and this and that, and while it looked neat, it failed to really capture me as a gamer. Not that as a kid I didn’t go “Wow those graphics are purty!” but any of the games just failed to make a lasting impression with me as I wasn’t much of a sports gamer and I never could get into Alex Kidd. It just seemed like a poor Mario clone to me. All of that changed when I saw this….




Yes, the original ad for Sonic the Hedgehog. Now Sega gets laughed at for poor marketing strategy and rightly so, however during the early 90s Sega had made absolutely brilliant marketing decisions and strategy. Alex Kidd simply was not pushing Sega consoles and they needed a serious viable contender to the Super Nintendo onslaught. In steps this man...

The face of a man that realizes he is indeed all that and a bag of chips

The Sega Corporation should be sending a good 5 percent of their paycheck to this man every week for literally putting them on the map in videogame history. Many characters were submitted by Naka’s team to replace Alex Kidd, interestingly enough a lot of those scrapped designs would be used in later titles, such as Vector the Crocodile, who finally would make an appearance years later. Eventually the team settled on one design, a small hedgehog with an ability to run extremely fast. Dubbed Sonic due to his super speed, he was the obvious choice for the new mascot and was given the color blue to coincide with the trademark Sega logo. Sega wanted it so that when you think of Sega, you think of Sonic the Hedgehog, just like Mario with Nintendo. It was an instant overnight success. Sega had created an amazing attention getter. Sonic was the true alternative to Mario. The character was a perfect representation of the 1990s attitude. Outrageous, wild, out of control, in your face, fast paced and colorful, it made Mario look like an ancient relic of the past in my impressionable elementary mind. The choice was clear. I had to get Sonic the Hedgehog. For the first time ever, Mario and Nintendo had a true viable contender to his throne. That Christmas, Sega Genesis sold 65% more units than Nintendo. It was official. Sonic had knocked Mario off of his throne he held for nearly 10 years. A new sheriff was in town and his name was Sonic. It will easily go down as the greatest marketing strategy in the companies history. Of course, the game was fun too.



As soon as I hooked up my Genesis and booted it up I was instantly blown away. The first thing you recognize is that Sonic has a personality. He isn’t just some sprite. I could see his facial expressions as he nearly falls off of a cliff, the determination he has when charging at full speed and his sense of humor as he gets angry at you for not getting a move on already and his surprise when he gets struck by an enemy. I got a sense of accomplishment and thrill at besting Dr. Robotnik on the first stage and watching him race away in fear. I felt like I was playing as a bad ass and could instantly get a sense of their characters without one word of dialogue or background story being spoken. I only made it to the second Zone on my first play through, but I still remember it vividly to this day. I played the game all day for hours on end. Everything in the game just came together. Green Hill Zone was a fun romp to introduce you to the world of Sonic. The lush backgrounds, the beautiful music and gorgeous backdrop were placed to give you a sense that “Yes, this is what you are fighting for.” Marble Zone the music gets a bit more dramatic, the stages a bit more challenging before changing gears with Spring Yard Zone and the dreaded Labyrinth Zone, a perfectly named stage that many gamers finally get stuck on thanks to it’s difficulty and somewhat confusing layout. If you can manage to clear that the game brings you Star Light Zone. A peaceful calm setting with beautiful relaxing music to reward you for getting this far. This was also the game’s way of relaxing you before the final stretch, the Scrap Yard with another music track that invokes the feeling of “Hey, this is the end, don’t give up!” Every aspect of game design came together beautifully and after much practice I was finally able to best Dr. Robotnik and he was finally mine. …..Or so I thought and he just flew off again and I was sad and disappointed. But hey, Sonic saved the world for his little forest friends and everything would be ok, at least for now. Sadly, I never could get all of the Chaos Emeralds in that game. The images of Dr. Robotnik taunting me at the end with the remaining ones he had irritated me to this day. I would spend the next year or so beating the game and trying my damnedest to destroy that damn Robotnik at the end and prevent him from getting away but to no avail.

The first of many, many and I do mean many battles with the Doc

Suffice to say, this was my introduction to Sonic the Hedgehog and I became an instant fan. I finally had found a game that made me realize I really did love to play videogames and this was up to that point my clear favorite and still remains a game I play off and on regularly throughout the years. I became a Sonic fan boy.








Next Time: In Chapter 2 we revisit 1992 where the best just got better and I determined that all I needed in life were 3 things. God, family and Sonic the Hedgehog.

And thus did many used game retailers clutch their stomachs and laugh heartily at Sega's empty threats.